1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of food preparation equipment. More specifically the present invention relates to an apparatus for tenderizing, progressively flattening and smoothing various meats, including but not limited to veal, poultry, beef, pork, alligator, seafood, ostrich, quail, duck, horse, lamb, goat, buffalo, venison and fish. This apparatus is an improved version of the meat flatting apparatus described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,850,786, issued on Dec. 22, 1998 to the present applicant, the contents of which are incorporated by reference.
The apparatus includes two generally parallel and adjacent rows or sets of rollers, the sets being spaced apart from each other and oriented such that the sets converge toward each other to define a gap between the sets tapering from a wider gap end to a narrower gap end for progressively flattening pieces of meat fed between the sets at the wider gap end, and includes a pair of opposing and spaced apart belts in the form of an out-feed conveyor belt assembly and an adjacent meat finishing conveyor belt assembly, both parallel to the roller sets and having receiving ends adjacent to the gap narrower end for engaging and smoothing flattened pieces of meat discharged from the gap narrower end. The sets of rollers are preferably oriented substantially horizontally to provide user access to the entire apparatus at a convenient height, but the sets may be mutually oriented at any angle relative to horizontal, and may be oriented vertically. An in-feed conveyor belt is preferably provided and is positioned to be parallel and adjacent to the gap wider end on which pieces of meat are placed and advances the pieces of meat to the gap wider end where they are engaged by and drawn between the rollers. A marinated spray device is also preferably provided at the one of the roller sets and has a sprayer nozzle directed toward the roller set to spray marinate or water onto the rollers so that the marinate or water is pressed into the meat during processing. Sprayed water serves to rehydrate the meat and is also used to keep the rollers clean from meat particles during production, and to prevent the meat itself from sticking to the rollers, and thus prevents the meat from becoming pasty.
Each set of rollers includes several mutually parallel and laterally adjacent rollers arrayed in a series from first to last which is preferably substantially rectilinear but may alternatively be curvalinear. Each set of rollers includes several flattening rollers preferably having non-sharpened protrusions about their circumfferential surfaces to knead the meat. The flattening rollers are not necessarily all identical. The teeth on the flattening rollers preferably become progressively smaller from on roller to the next as the series progresses toward the meat exit of the apparatus. Each set preferably also includes one or a group of tenderizing rollers, ahead of the flattening rollers in the series, but may also have tenderizing rollers behind or in the middle of the flattening rollers. At each end of the series of tenderizing roller is a scraper roller for dislodging and remove particles of meat caught in the tenderizing rollers. One set of rollers optionally includes a cutter roller for cutting the meat into strips or cubes, the cutter roller preferably being behind the flattening rollers in the roller series, but which may also have strip or cube cutting rollers ahead of or in the middle of the flattening rollers.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There have long been techniques for flattening meat. These have generally required the labor butchers and food preparers who have to grip the meat with their hands, leading to inherent sanitation problems. Furthermore, such manual techniques do not result in a uniform flatness which can be necessary for even cooking and consistent cooking time for all areas of the meat, and for a desired aesthetic appearance. Similar problems exist for flattening chicken, veal, pork, lamp, goat, buffalo and venison.
Attempts have been made to solve these problems, and these attempts have led to the development of the devices disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,135,960, issued on Nov. 8, 1938 to Campell; U.S. Pat. No. 2,243,492, issued on May 27, 1941 to Wilson; U.S. Pat. No. 2,718,028, issued on Sep. 20, 1955 to Read, et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 3,716,893 issued on Feb. 20, 1973 to Vogelsang; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,085,482 issued on Apr. 25, 1978 to Charron, none of which actually overcame these problems. The tenderizer type machines pierce and penetrate meat and further cause the meat to be chopped into separate pieces.
The apparatus disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,850,786, issued on Dec. 22, 1998 to the present applicant does overcome these problems in that the device flattens uniformly and tenderizes pieces of meat mostly without need of handling by a person. Yet it would be further desirable to provide an apparatus which additionally marinates, rehydrates, flattens and then tenderizes the meat, or which tenderizes, and then flattens and smooths the meat, or which tenderizers, flattens and strip or cube cuts and smooths the meat, or which flattens, then strip or cube cuts and smooths the meat, or which processes the meat according to various other meat roller type combinations, to further minimize the need for manual handling of the meat and to enhance processing efficiency. The roller processing of the meat changes the shape of the meat pieces, repairs damaged meat and knits two or more pieces of meat together to become one piece.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for flattening meat which includes conveyor belt means for finishing the meat by smoothing the broad surfaces of the flattened meat.
It is another object of the present invention to provide such an apparatus which also includes means for applying marinate to the meat during tenderizing, flattening, strip cutting or cube cutting so that people do not have to handle the meat to perform this processing step.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide such an apparatus which also includes means for applying water to rehydrate the meat during tenderizing, flattening, strip cutting or cube cutting.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide such an apparatus which also includes means for administering water or marinate to prevent the meat from sticking to the rollers during production.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide such an apparatus which additionally includes an in-feed belt for increasing ease and efficiency of feeding pieces of meat into the apparatus.
It is finally an object of the present invention to provide such an apparatus which processes pieces of meat at high volume and rapidly, with minimal cost and maximum reliably.
The present invention accomplishes the above-stated objectives, as well as others, as may be determined by a fair reading and interpretation of the entire specification.
An apparatus is provided for flattening pieces of meat without piercing nor shredding the meat, the apparatus including a first roller set, each roller in the first roller set having non-sharpened outer edges; a second roller set, each roller in the second roller set having non-sharpened outer edges, the first roller set directly opposing and being spaced and fully separated from the second roller set, the first and second roller sets together having a product in-feed end into which meat pieces are drawn and having a product out-feed end at which flattened meat pieces are expelled from between the first and second roller sets; an adjustment mechanism for adjusting the spacing between the first roller set and the second roller set, where meat passing between the first and second roller sets is substantially flattened but not pierced nor shredded; and an in-feed conveyor belt assembly at the in-feed end including an in-feed conveyor belt and a rolling mechanism for rolling the in-feed conveyor belt in a direction to advance meat pieces placed on the in-feed conveyor belt to the in-feed end. The in-feed conveyor belt assembly preferably includes an in-feed conveyor frame including a pair of spaced apart and substantially parallel elongate composite frame plates including pivotally connected frame hinge segments, the frame plates being interconnected by a series of in-feed conveyor support plates over which the in-feed conveyor belt rides as it rolls and by a series of in-feed conveyor support rods, and an in-feed conveyor drive pulley extending between and rotatably mounted to the composite frame plates at the longitudinal ends of the elongate composite frame plates. The hinge segments each preferably include a belt adjuster plate bolted to an end of each of the frame plates and having an adjustment slot through which the adjuster plate mounting bolts pass and screw into ports in the given frame plate, where the slot in the belt adjuster plates permit the hinge segments to pivot to collapse the frame and move one of the conveyor drive pulleys inward generally toward the other conveyor drive pulley to release the in-feed conveyor belt, and then to move the conveyor drive pulley outward and generally away from the other drive pulley to pull taut and thereby engage the in-feed conveyor belt.
An apparatus for flattening meat without piercing nor shredding the meat is further provided, the apparatus including a first roller set, each roller having non-sharpened outer edges; a second roller set, each roller having non-sharpened outer edges, the first roller set directly opposing and being spaced and fully separated from the second roller set, the first and second roller sets together having a product in-feed end into which meat pieces are drawn and having a product out-feed end at which flattened meat pieces are expelled from between the first and second roller sets; an adjusting mechanism for adjusting the spacing between the first roller set and the second roller set, where meat passing between the first and second roller sets is substantially flattened but not pierced nor shredded; and an out-feed conveyor belt assembly at the out-feed end, including an out-feed conveyor belt and a rolling mechanism for rolling the out-feed conveyor belt in a direction to advance meat pieces placed on the out-feed conveyor belt away from the out-feed end. The apparatus preferably additionally includes a finisher conveyor belt assembly at the out-feed end, the finisher conveyor belt assembly having a finisher conveyor belt generally parallel with, opposing and spaced apart from the out-feed conveyor belt and a rolling mechanism for rolling the out-feed conveyor belt in a direction to advance meat pieces placed on the out-feed conveyor belt away from the out-feed end; so that meat pieces expelled from between the out-feed end pass and are carried between the out-feed conveyor belt and the finisher conveyor belt by the rolling of the out-feed conveyor belt, and a finisher conveyor drive pulley drive mechanism, the finisher conveyor belt comprising a smoothing mechanism for smoothing the product.
The out-feed conveyor belt assembly preferably includes an out-feed conveyor belt and an out-feed conveyor frame including a pair of opposing spaced apart and parallel elongate out-feed frame plates and each out-feed frame plate having contiguous frame hinge segment and belt adjustor plate, the opposing frame plates and the opposing belt adjustor plates being interconnected, respectively, by a series of conveyor support plates over which the out-feed conveyor belt rolls, an out-feed conveyor drive pulley on which the out-feed belt rolls at each end of the out-feed conveyor frame, an out-feed conveyor drive pulley extending between and rotatably mounted to each end of the frame plates and to the opposing belt adjustor plate on which the conveyor belt rolls.
The finisher conveyor belt assembly preferably includes a finisher conveyor belt and a finisher conveyor frame including a pair of opposing, spaced apart and parallel elongate finisher frame plates, the finisher frame plates each having a contiguous frame hinge segment and a finisher belt adjustor plate, the opposing finisher frame plates being interconnected by a series of conveyor support plates over which the finisher conveyor belt rolls and a conveyor drive pulley extending between and rotatably mounted to the opposing frame plates and the opposing finisher belt adjuster plates on which the finisher conveyor belt rolls, and conveyor drive pulley drive mechanism.
The apparatus preferably additionally includes a marinator assembly mounted adjacent to one of the roller sets, and marinator assembly including a marinate supply mechanism and marinator nozzle oriented to spray marinate onto the rollers for delivery onto meat pieces and prevent the meat from sticking to the rollers. The apparatus preferably further includes an apparatus cover with a cover opening, where the marinator assembly includes a mounting fitting fastened to the outside of the cover and extends into and through the cover opening and has a central fitting port surrounded by a protruding and an annular flange having annular interior threads and annular flange external threaded, and a fitting fastening nut screwed onto the annular flange external threads thereby securing the mounting fitting into the cover opening and a sprayer nozzle screwed into the annular flange internal threads, the nozzle having external threads onto which a locking fitting having locking fitting internal threads is screwed, the locking fitting having a radial mounting flange protruding from its mid-section with at least one notch at its circumferential edge for receiving ends of mounting fitting fastening screws so that when the locking mount fitting is rotated the at least one notch engages and locks to the fitting fastening screws, where the locking fitting has locking nozzle external threads and where a marinate flow valve with internal threads is screwed onto the locking fitting external threads, where the flow valve has an operating lever for manually operated by a person, the marinator assembly further including a male quick release section screwed into the opposing end of the flow valve, and a marinate supply hose connector secured to the male quick release section.
The apparatus preferably additionally includes an adjustment plate adjustably mounted to each frame plate, a bracket secured to each frame plate, each bracket having a receiver block pivotally mounted to pivot into engagement with a adjustment shaft ball connecting the finisher conveyor belt assembly with the out-feed conveyor belt assembly, there enabling the adjustment shaft to move the finisher conveyor belt assembly toward and away from the out-feed conveyor belt assembly. At least one of the first roller set and the second roller set includes a tenderizing roller, a flattening roller, a scraper roller and a cutter roller.